


You’re The Truest Thing

by orphan_account



Category: Tiny Meat Gang (Band)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Caregiver, Established Relationship, Fluff, Little!Noel, M/M, Non-Sexual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-07 23:18:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20984051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: cody is kind of oblivious, but he's working on it.nothing more than that - the paper kites





	You’re The Truest Thing

**Author's Note:**

> i haven’t posted fan writing of any sort for like 5 years so bear with me.  
this is completely fictional.  
im also not involved in the little community, the idea of little!noel just warms my heart, so im sorry for any inaccuracies.  
cool, here we go.

Cody never made a habit of looking at Noel’s phone, and Noel didn’t with Cody either. Both knew they had nothing to hide from each other. Peeking over shoulders to interrupt snapchats, looking at the others explore pages on Instagram, there didn’t seem to be a boundary. There was no need for one. They shared live videos backstage before shows, popped into facetimes, texted people when the others hands were full, and shared music through a pair of earbuds on planes, trains, wherever their careers were taking them. 

Cruising at 40,000 feet in the air, they were headed to their next destination, and Noel was curled up in the window seat with the shade down. The middle armrest was lifted so that he could be closer to Cody, and their hands were loosely linked due to Noel’s slumber. Noel had his hood up and his sunglasses on, which slowly slid down his nose as he slept, complaining earlier to Cody that he hadn’t been sleeping well because of his neck, and was slightly grumpy as they boarded the plane. Cody peeked at Noel, and softly smiled, relieved that Noel was getting some rest. 

Tracing his thumb on the back of Noel’s hand, Cody sighed and thought he should try to shut his eyes as well. He shifted towards Noel, who had both his earbuds in and his phone tucked away in the kangaroo pouch of his sweatshirt as he snoozed. Assuming that Noel was playing some sort of music to block out the planes noises, Cody wanted 50% of this relief as well, and gently reached over to steal the left earbud. 

At first, Cody didn’t hear anything, but frowned when he heard a rustling of some sorts, and then some tinny tapping noises, fading in and out of his ear. This was certainly not music like he had thought. Cody was definitely creeped out when he heard a voice whispering in his ear, and squirmed in response, what on earth was Noel listening to, was this what people considered asmr? When the whispering returned, Cody could only stand so much of it before the voice asked to touch his face, and mentioned something about a stuffed animal, before he tugged the earbud out, not really knowing how to respond. Cody let the earbud hang by Noel’s side, and tried to comprehend what he had just heard. Who was talking, and why the everliving hell did they want to touch his face?

Cody was surprised that he had never seen anything weird like this on Noel’s phone before, nor had Noel ever mentioned asmr before. Carefully linking his fingers with Noel’s again, Cody pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind and leaned back against the headrest to close his eyes. 

~

A week passed, and Cody had put in extra effort to pay attention to Noel’s actions. He had never brought up the amsr situation on the flight back from tour, but began to notice small things that Noel did. When they went to an arcade on Wednesday, Noel insisted on spending copious amounts on tickets to a claw machine, and played for what felt like hours. Cody sat in a booth, drinking a soda and simply watching him, so he didn’t miss when Noel finally was able to maneuver a purple stuffed puppy into the drop chute, softly cheering with joy and turning to smile brightly at Cody, showing off his hard earned reward, naming him Rogan. 

Sometimes when Noel was stressed, he would get really quiet, even nonverbal sometimes, and Cody would provide cuddles which Noel never turned down, and he made happy noises when Cody would pull him into his lap and wrap his arms around him, purposefully like you would with a child. Yeah, something was up, and Cody was starting to get a vague idea of what it might be.

Today, after recording a new podcast, Cody decided to hang at Noel’s place for a bit. While recording the podcast, Noel made an offhand comment about reddit, which he denied using, but was discussing the odd side of the site. The comment was nothing that anyone would pay much attention to among the obscurity of many of the other subreddits, but Cody had done some digging after hearing Noel mention a subreddit called r/littlesafe. Opening the app and typing the tag in, he was confused. The bio was assuring the tag as a safe space for littles, and Cody had general knowledge of what a little was, something to do with ddlg, but perhaps Noel had made a mistake, because this tag didn’t seem that morbid. Was Noel visiting this tag and didn’t mean to bring it up? Cody didn’t spend much time scrolling, as the bio gave him enough information, but he was now intrigued with Noel’s occasionally childlike behavior.

Taking his shoes off and tossing his keys on the side table, Cody makes himself comfortable on the couch, Noel following close behind him and seating himself snug against Cody, resting his head on Cody’s shoulder. Cody turns and kisses Noel’s forehead, noticing that he‘s feeling a little more cuddly than average.  
“You feeling okay?” Cody asks, tracing his fingertips over Noel’s forearm and bringing him closer when Noel sighs in contentment.  


“Mhm, jus’ tired,” Noel responds, turning his face into the crook of Cody’s shoulder.  
“Do you wanna try to take a nap? It’s been a busy week. I can make a trip to target and get something for dinner, and you’ll get a couple hours to yourself because of traffic.” Cody suggests, glancing at his phone and seeing that rush hour was just coming to a close, as if that would make any difference here in LA.

“Yeah, okay. Wanna do me a favor? Can you get some chicken nuggets, preferably the little dinosaur ones? Those are superior to all others, don’t argue with me.”  
Cody chuckles, “Sure thing, but remind me how old you are? 10?” To this Noel just grumbles about how good they are again, and gets up to shuffle to the bedroom, looking back at Cody, who grabs a throw blanket off the couch and carries it to the bed where Noel curls up, with the stuffed puppy from the arcade, still in his gravedigger hoodie and some black sweats. Cody notes that he looks extremely young and satisfied.

Cody thinks of Noel’s twitch streams and smiles. “Want me to tuck you in?” He teases, laying the blanket across Noel.  
Instead of brushing Cody off, Noel looks up, unusually shy. “Would you?” He says in a soft voice, and Cody’s heart swells a little right then and there.

“Of course,” he says gently, and tucks the covers neatly around Noel, kissing him chastely. “I’ll try not to be too long, hopefully the dinos will still be frozen after the ride home.”

Cody locks the front door behind him, the image of Noel’s soft expression still at the front of his mind. Now that he had been deliberately thinking of it, Cody was genuinely wondering if Noel was interested, or even involved in the little community. These thoughts swirled around in his head as he climbed into his car, and stayed with him all the way to the nearest target, too occupied to even be bothered about the traffic. He had done some general research, and found that many people who identified as littles used the headspace as an outlet for stress, and were able to mentally regress in age to lessen the weight of whatever anxieties they were having. Cody read that some people made a mental decision to regress, while others slipped into it reflexively. He also came across the notion that some people engaged in sexual actives while regressed, but he doubted that was what Noel was into, seeing that it had never been an issue for them before.

Walking in through the sliding doors, Cody heads right back to the freezer aisle, and thinks again of spontaneous trips here with Noel, wasting time that they didn’t have in the first place fooling around and being loud, which resulted in many a stare from the employees. While wandering towards the freezer aisle, he passes the junior and infant section, and finds himself slowing down unconsciously. He thinks of one of their more recent visits, and remembers catching Noel glancing a second too long down the baby section. 

So, this is where Cody goes, passing soft baby blankets, tiny trinkets, and monitors until he stops in front of the baby food. He reads the labels and scrunches up his nose at a jar that contains a veggie dinner with turkey, how can babies eat that? To the left of the food are sippy cups, and Cody stares at one in particular, purple, like Noel’s stuffed puppy Cody remembers, with a little moon and stars. He tentatively picks it up, contemplating buying it for Noel just to see if it will elicit a reaction, specifically a childish one, and decides that he’ll buy it to see what happens, and doesn’t think too much of swiping a pacifier off another shelf before getting the dinosaur nuggets and heading to the checkout.

It’s crowded enough that there’s a small line at the self checkout, and normally Cody prefers the self checkout, but right now he just wants to get back to Noel, so he sighs and walks over to lane 9 where a middle aged, friendly faced woman is waiting to ring him up. He places his three items down on the conveyer belt and pulls out his wallet. The cashier smiles up at him, “Are these for your kiddo?”  
It takes Cody a second to process what she says, and another to figure out how to respond without giving away the actual situation at hand. “Yeah, he’s getting his Friday treat, today its chicken nuggets, and he whined about wanted the dinosaur ones because I guess they’re better than the regular.”

To this she laughs, eyes wrinkling behind her glasses. “What’s his name, if I may ask? How old?"  
“Noel, and he just turned, uh, three in August.” Cody stumbles, and hands her his credit card. “He’s a handful sometimes, but I don’t know what I’d be doing without him, I love the little guy.” He lays on the fatherly talk, though means what he says completely, just not so much the part about Noel being a “little guy.” Though, Cody realizes, Noel is as short as he is, and maybe even a "little" so he guesses it’s not that far off.  
The cashier hands him his card, receipt, and plastic bag, “Well, I hope you have a good night, and good luck to you with your little one.” He thanks her and walks to his car, putting the bag on the floor of the passenger seat.

The drive back to Noel’s place feels like it takes ten times longer than it should, plus Cody stopped by his own apartment to put his laundry in the dryer, where it will probably sit for a week before he runs out of other things to wear, not to mention the majority of his stuff is at Noel’s anyway. He locks up and heads over, putting some nuggets on a baking tray and placing them in the oven, noting that they’re only half thawed. The one bedroom apartment is otherwise quiet, so Cody assumes Noel is still sleeping.

He steps softly across the bedroom threshold and sees Noel wrapped up with only his head of now messy hair visible and his hoodie discarded at the foot of the comforter. Watching his step so he doesn’t trip and scare Noel awake by falling, Cody makes his way over to the side of the bed that Noel lays on, brushing his fingers across Noel’s face and up into his hair, coaxing him awake. Noel’s eyes slowly open, and he nuzzles his cheek into Cody’s palm, effectively making his heart ache and his eyes crease with a loving smile. 

“You ready to get up? I just put the nuggets in the oven, so they’ll be ready in ten minutes, you don’t have to get out of bed just yet.” Cody assures, kissing Noel’s cheek and letting his fingers drift down his neck and bare collarbone. Noel just looks up at Cody with his eyes soft and adoring, and nods his head in place of responding verbally. Cody knows then and there that he’s going to take care of Noel tonight, or at least try to the best of his ability. He backs out of the room and cracks the door, heading into the kitchen to get some plates and glances at the target bag on the dining table. Cody decides to grab the sippy cup, and removes the packaging to wash it and then fill it with some apple juice. He also washes the pacifier, though he’s not sure it’ll even be used, and places it in one of the cabinets next to the sink.

Just as Cody is taking the nuggets out of the oven and plating them, Noel comes wandering into the kitchen space shirtless, but is wrapped in the throw blanket that Cody gave him before his nap. He sits in one of the dining chairs, and crosses his legs the best he can, smiling lovingly at Cody but again saying nothing. Cody brings the two plates to the table, and sets down a glass of water for himself. He reaches for the sippy cup on the counter, and puts it carefully down in front of Noel, watching his face for a reaction of any sort. Noel freezes with a chicken nugget in his hand, and stares at the cup intently, almost in awe. He brings the dinosaur back down to the plate, and Cody thinks he sees his hand tremble a bit, so he reaches out to steady it, not sure if he expected this intense of a reaction.

“Noel?” He prompts, encouraging him to come out of his shell a little more. At hearing his name out of Cody’s mouth and feeling his touch, Noel turns towards Cody with his eyes shining, and throws himself into his arms. “Hey, you okay?” Cody questions, immediately worried, and rubs the back of Noel’s neck with the hand that isn’t wrapped firmly around his waist. Noel nods, and the movement makes Cody feel wet eyelashes against his own neck where Noel is hiding his face. He softly pushes Noel off his chest so he can look him in the eyes when he asks, “Do you want to talk about this?”

Noel takes a shaky breath, and makes his first verbal response since Cody came back. “Okay. Yeah.” 

"I have one question before we get started though." Noel shrunk back a little at Cody's words, feeling wary, but stayed put. "Noel, how old are you feeling right now?" says Cody, trying to tread lightly, but knowing how important this was in order to have a solid and clear conversation. Noel stutters a little, his cheeks revealing a pink tint when he responds.  
"I'm-um-I'm here, current day, current age. Cody-I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about this, I'm not too sure what it is either, I’m thinking some sort of coping mechanism would best describe it I guess." Cody reaches out to take Noel's hand again, reassuring him with repeated swipes of his thumb across his wrist.  
"You are crazy to think that you need to apologise to me about this, it isn't anything you should feel sorry for, I just happened to be paying more attention to it and thought it should be talked about."

Noel simply sniffles and nods, waiting for Cody to continue with his questions. “How long have you been feeling like this? I notice small things but never thought much of them, should I have said something sooner?” Cody asks, trying not to bombard Noel but finding it kind of difficult.  
“Uh, I think this headspace thing has always been there, and it’s kind of like an old muscle pain I guess. When I get really stressed, it flares up, and I sort of fall into it, sometimes I can’t help it and sometimes I can. It just depends on the day and environment that I’m in I think. I never really thought of you finding out, so I’m not really prepared for this conversation. Don’t feel bad for not mentioning it though, I think now is a good time.” Explains Noel, fiddling with the corner of the blanket crumpled around his waist. 

“Would you say that you’re, like, a little? I don’t know everything, but I know some things, and I want to understand what it’s like for you and how I can help.” Trying to encourage Noel, he nudges the cup of juice towards him and Noel takes a small sip, relaxing his shoulders a bit.  
“I don’t know if I’d identify as a little entirely I guess, just more that sometimes I feel little, or I want to feel little. It’s nice to get away from the world every now and then.” Noel begins to speak more comfortably now, and looks Cody in the eyes. “Is that okay with you?”  
“Don’t be silly,” says Cody. “Of course it’s okay. I love you and nothing can ever change that, this just gives me even more of a chance to spoil and cuddle you.”

“You’re a sap, you know that? I love you too by the way.” Noel responds with a smile, eating and drinking freely now, feeling relaxing and safe.  
“Just a couple more things, if that’s okay?” Asks Cody, wanting Noel to set the pace before he asks the last question. Noel nods, and again Cody continues. “Is it, like, a sexual thing ever?” Before Cody can even really finish the question, Noel shakes his head no.  
“It’s not, and I don’t think it ever will be, I’m not exactly comfortable interacting in my headspace like that I don’t think.” Cody nods in understanding, assuming that would be the answer, but not wanting to bet on it without asking. 

“Okay, just one more thing and then I’m done. Could I-would you let me, um, age you down? Or try to I guess?” This question Cody asks especially gently, not wanting to scare Noel, and it doesn’t help that he’s not completely sure of what he’s saying either. Little does Cody know, just those words falling from his lips start the familiar fog in Noel’s head, but in the best way possible, and maybe his neck hurts because he nods too much, like he does yet again earnestly in response to Cody. Cody gets up from the table to clear the empty plates and his glass, but leaves the sippy cup on the table for Noel, and all Noel can do is watch him, fiddling with a hem on the ankle of his sweatpants, his heart beating hummingbird-fast. 

Taking Noel’s hand softly, Cody suggests “Come on, let’s go over to the couch now, okay?” And Noel is up in an instant to follow him, taking a seat next to Cody who coaxes him down to lay his head on his thigh, looking up at him. “How old are you feeling now, any younger?” Cody whispers.  
Noel simply says “Eleven,” to which Cody raises his eyebrows because, wow, that was fast, and Noel shuts his eyes as Cody caresses his cheek, and drifts his fingertips down, down his face, from his forehead, over his eyelids, lips and nose, to his chin. Noel can’t help but let a soft, vulnerable whimper out of his nose, never having felt so connected to someone and cared for so deeply on this specific level in his entire life.

“I’ve got you, Noel, I’ve got you. I’m here and I love you.” Cody reassures, his heart contracting painfully in a way that he thinks could make him cry, and oh god, he’s so in love. “How about now, darling, how’re we feeling?” Noel does the best he can, but is only able to hold up four fingers on his left hand, floating somewhere far away yet deeply grounded, both with Cody right there with him.

Cody really doesn’t want to move, but seeing as Noel is feeling so young, he wonders if he could bring the pacifier into the mix. He shifts Noel’s head off of his thigh, but when he tries to get up Noel’s eyes snap open and he reaches out for Cody with both hands, grabbing at air.  
“I’m right here, love.” Cody reassures, holding one of Noel’s hands and kissing his knuckles. “Can you shut your eyes and count to ten? I’ll be back by the time you’re done, I promise you.”

Noel closes his eyelids slowly, almost watching to see where Cody is going, and in a tiny voice begins to count “One, two, three...” Cody briskly walks into the kitchen, and retrieves the red pacifier from the cabinet, returning just in time to hear Noel say ten and open his eyes, looking right up at Cody and giggling.  
“There he is,” murmurs Cody. “I think I have something that you’ll like.” When Noel sees what Cody is holding, he feels his headspace clear for a moment, just enough to feel a rush of pure infatuation that makes tears spring into his eyes once again. Just as quickly though, he’s sucked back under and fumbles for Cody’s hand and the pacifier.

Noel lets out a hum of satisfaction when he feels the soft rubber between his teeth and on his tongue, and tugs Cody until he sits next to Noel again, where Cody shifts them both to a spooning position with Noel held securely against his chest. Not securely enough though, so that Noel turns around to mush his face into Cody’s chest, working the fabric of his t-shirt in his fists. Cody can tell that Noel begins to fall asleep again, due to the soft sucking noises slowing down, as well as the hands in his shirt. Cody brings the throw blanket up over the both of them, and as he himself starts to drift off, finds that there is nowhere else in this goddamn world that he would rather be.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think, thank you for reading my mediocre work inspired by my loneliness.


End file.
